"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence." - from George Eliot’s Middlemarch

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of this. Although who really wants to own the remains of Worthington Labs, Alcatraz facility?

Summary: The Cure is only temporary. While healing Rogue and Magneto find each other and realize they have more in common than they originally thought.

Soundtrack: I recommend the song “Freedom” by Fleetwood Mac. It’s haunting and describes Rogue’s feelings of indecision, fear, and attraction to Magneto. It also mentions Magneto’s fall from grace. Over all, Fleetwood Mac is a wonderful band and if you have yet to discover their music, please do so. You’ll thank me.

Chapter Four: Leather

Rogue and Magneto:

“Hello Rogue.”

Rogue looked uncertainly at Magneto’s extended hand. She didn’t grasp it, instead helping herself up and scrapping her opera gloves further in the process. If he thinks I’m gonna let the likes of him help me, he’s got metal on the brain. Rogue backed up a few steps on the rubble to put distance between herself and the self-proclaimed Master of Magnetism. He was just over six feet tall and that was almost a foot taller than she was. She hated looking up into his ice cold blue eyes; their watchful gaze sent shivers down her entire body. Just seeing Magneto made her nerves tingle as she remembered the searing pain of fueling his machine on the top of the Statue of Liberty. She felt a little better when she took in his attire. He wasn’t wearing his usual outfit: his cape or goofy helmet notably absent. Instead, he wore just plain blue jeans and a black track jacket. She felt her stomach tighten even further; there was a reason he was incognito.

Foolish, stubborn girl, he thought as Rogue backed away from him. She radiated fear, unconsciously standing in a defensive position, her big brown eyes watching him as though at any moment he would spring at her. Her fear was completely ill-founded. He could only move small amounts of metal with his mind and his aim was pitiful at best. The Cure had disrupted his ability to control his powers and it was slow returning. At that moment Rogue could easily best him in battle; she was much younger and more nimble than him. But Rogue didn’t know this and Magneto had no intention of her finding out. He would use intimidation to keep her from realizing he was still weakened from the Cure. If he didn’t use his powers much, maybe she would not be able to guess how diminished they were.

“Well I can see someone wasn’t expecting company.” He crossed his arms over his chest, wondering if it was possible to look intimidating wearing a black track jacket. He silently cursed himself for dressing so casually. He hadn’t wanted the conspicuousness wearing a cape and custom made superhero suit brought. Rogue on the other hand wasn’t wearing her X-Men suit and where there was no suit; there were no reinforcements and no X-Jet. He knew she had come alone.

“What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.” He looked directly into her eyes and Rogue’s brown eyes yielded to his blue, breaking the stare, searching the rubble in the dark. “Let me guess. Your Cure has worn off and your natural abilities have returned.” He sneered out the word “Cure”. He detested calling it a “Cure”; the word poison was better suited.

Rogue could think of no way to deny that he had guessed it right and so easily too. So she remained silent and refused to acknowledge him.

“You’re looking to take more of that poison, only to find there’s none left.” He spit out the word poison. “Am I correct so far?”

Rogue refused to look at him and made no motion to reply.

“Rogue.” She nodded her head after that and he continued.

“So you came here, the only place where there might be more of the Cure left.” His empty blue eyes bore into her and she croaked out a “yes” in reply.

“Oh, Rogue, I’m disappointed in you. I never would have thought you would be so ungrateful as to rid yourself of the gift God gave you a second time. At the very least, the part of me you have in your head should have talked some sense into you.”

“Yeah, well… not all-a-us have such great mutations like bein’ ‘Master of Magnetism’.” She actually had the audacity to make quote marks in the air with her fingers as her accent leaked into her speech.

“I’d never thought you would be so naïve, Rogue. You always seemed like a smart girl.” Magneto gave her a smile that chilled her as he moved a step closer; his movements unnervingly graceful over the broken concrete.

“What do ya mean?” She took a step backwards, playing with the fingers of her white satin opera glove.

“Do you really believe you’re the first one to suffer because of your mutation?” He walked closer. Of course, she didn’t think that. She edged backwards, taking tiny steps over the uneven rubble.

“I… ah-,” was all she could manage to choke out as cut her off, moving two feet closer with each step.

“That you are the first mutant to live in fear because you can’t control your mutation?” He could reach out and touch her now if he wanted; she tried to move backwards, only to find herself against one of the remaining Worthington Lab walls.

“No.” She inched the glove off a little further.

“When my mutation manifested itself, I couldn’t touch anything metal without warping it beyond repair. Coins, food utensils, even the steel in buildings; I couldn’t control the magnetic fields I radiated. I was afraid to go outside, worried if I passed by a car I would destroy it.”

“What happened?” She dared herself to look him directly in the eye to keep him distracting as she slowly moved the satin glove further down her arm.

“I learned to control my powers, not to let them control me. It took years but I learned to harness them and direct them at will.” She should have remembered all this from his memories, but the Professor had done his best to lock up Magneto’s presence in her mind. “Have you even tried to control your powers?”

“The Professor helped me to silence the voices in my head.” Rogue offered. Almost there, just a little more. Her glove was almost off her hand.

“But did he teach you to direct your power?”

“No.” She felt rather than saw the thin strips of metal encircle her wrists binding them together.

“A pity, you could be so powerful.” She wrenched her wrists violently back and forth struggling in vain to free herself from the makeshift hand cuffs. Why hadn’t she seen that coming? She refused to be so easily defeated by him. She stuck her jaw out and looked him squarely in the eye, defiant.

“Well, maybe the power to kill people so easily isn’t as appealing to me as it is to you. I just want to live a normal life.”

“A normal life? Tell me Rogue, if you’re mutation was more like Ms. Pyrde’s ability to walk through walls, would you still be so eager to be rid of it?”

She felt him step even closer to her and could feel the warm heat of his body on the cool night. He was so much larger than her, the top of her head only reaching his chin. She would have to jump if she was to try to touch her cheek to his. He had broad shoulders and long arms; she began to wonder if she would be able to put up much of a fight against him with her hands cuffed and scarcely any of his skin exposed.

“Is it a desire to be normal, to be human that drives you? Or is it a desire for touch?” With that his gloved hand reached out delicately stroking down the side of her neck. Rogue tried to move away, but gasped as the sensation of leather was smooth and soft across her skin. His touch was so light it felt almost ticklish and Rogue tried to resist how starved for touch she was. She had nearly enjoyed it.

“Tell me. Do you plan to keep taking that poison for as long as you can?” He grasped her chin between his thumb and forefinger tightly. The warmth and pressure of his fingers through the leather glove was even pleasant. She rejected the thought in her mind as soon realized it.

“I just want people not be afraid of me. I want to be able to touch people and not hurt them. I hate seeing all their thoughts, it’s… it’s like having two people in your head.” Rogue rushed out, looking into the empty light blue gaze of Magneto above her. His eyes seemed to shine like beacons in the darkness of the night. She wondered why it felt so good to unburden herself to him. Maybe it was because she had never wanted to bother anyone at the mansion with her complaints.

“And why do you think you have to completely reverse your mutation to do so?” His hand moved from her chin to stroke languidly down her left shoulder and arm. It should have been a friendly caress, but to Rogue, it felt as though he was seeing her naked.

“Professor Xavier could control the voices in my head, but he never mentioned I could control the skin itself.” She looked up at his face as it turned from cold to offer what must be his version of a warm smile. Rogue couldn’t help but wonder what he would have looked like when he was young and unable to control his own powers. Something told her he must have been horribly handsome.

“Charles has always excelled in issues of the mind, my dear, but he knows little about controlling physical powers. I have mastered manipulation of fields of magnetism. I imagine your skin’s pull isn’t much different.” With that he leaned down and kissed her on the lips.

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Notes: Haha, I’m a mean author, leaving off at such a good moment. I’m not sure how the dialogue worked in this chapter and if I wrote Magneto convincingly. Let me know, the more reviews, the quicker I update.